Animator vs. Animation Neat animation by Alan Becker It might take a minute or so to load, but it's good. (thanks to The Lurker)

It's Good To Be English Cheers folks, I'll be downing a pint or three of Black Sheep tonight to toast the dragon slayer. Picture by Pozas

Sculpture At Crown Point, Bury Shall we take the boys on a walk to see this some time ?

The Manor House Museum, Ilkley Isn't it odd that you'll often travel half way around the world to see things, and yet there are sometimes places right under your nose that you have never looked at ? Manor House Museum. So this morning after a quick ramble around the moors I popped in to have a look. There is a small museum with a potted history of Ilkley from the Romans, through the Dark Ages, the coming of hydropathy to Ilkley, there are also lots of old photographs of Ilkley locations past and present. Upstairs there is a nice art gallery which at the moment is hosting the Burley-In-Wharfedale & Menston Arts Clubs 2008 Annual Exhibition. There are 80+ paintings on view, nearly all of which may be purchased when the show ends. I was quite taken by Babara Tower's watercolour of 'Autumn Evening, Grimwith'. I've walked around Grimwith many times and the picture will be a nice reminder of pleasant walks when I get it put up on my office wall.

Jennifer Makes Things From Pencils And nails and pins and things. Jennifer Maestre Sculpture

Andy Goldsworthy At The Yorkshire Sculpture Park Whenever I return from a day's hiking, Mrs YS often says.."So what did you take photos of today, walls, trees and sheep as usual ?" "Well," I say. "That's what the Dales are, dry stone walls, trees, and sheep." I returned home from my cultural day out yesterday with a big grin and was pleased to report to my wife that the new Andy Goldsworthy exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park relies heavily on these three features, dry stone walls, trees and sheep were much in evidence. Goldsworthy is my favourite artist, like Lanzarote's Cesar Manriques he works with nature's forms and shapes, subtly altering our conceptions of them. All of his art is made from natural materials, and quite a lot of it, such as his ice and petal work, and the frost shadows, are designed only to last for a day, or an hour, or until the sun comes up, it's clever, enchanting stuff. "Each work grows, stays, decays- integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its height, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit."-Andy Goldsworthy. There a number of outdoor installations at the YSP, this one is called hanging trees and looks at the interaction between trees and dry stone walls. I love this. He has taken the essence of the landscape and made art from it, it fits in perfectly in the place it is sited becoming at the same time natural, pleasing and intriguing. I wasn't allowed to take photos of the indoor installations and art, so you'll have to go and have a look at the wonderful tree stacks, wood rooms, the walls made from mud and human hair, paintings in blood, mud, blood and made by sheep (honestly, you can't help but smile). The various indoor galleries also carry a career retrospective of Goldsworthy's work. One gallery shows photographs of various dams the artist had built in a stream close to his Scottish home, he builds the dams in dry weather, then waits for the natural force of the stream in wet weather to destroy his work, then he builds another dam. The dams are all beatiful, like dry stone walls with branches and logs cleverly woven through them to create portals and patterns, wonderful. This is another of the outdoor installations called Outclosure, which looks at the way man and his laws impact on the accessibility of land. This is by far the best exhibition I have seen at YSP over the past few years, it is all free and runs until January 2008 so you have plenty of time to get over and see it for yourself. Oh dear, art by Andy Goldsworthy, fashion by Stevie Wonder.